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Junction pipe company sold

Ron Tipping, left, former co-owner and general manager of Grand Junction Pipe and Supply, talks with Ken Beard, an employee of more than 20 years, at a plant on the west part of the Redlands. Tipping recently sold the company to a firm based in Washington, D.C.

By {screen_name}
Tuesday, June 28, 2011

For many Grand Valley residents, Grand Junction Pipe and Supply creates its biggest impression with its eye-catching, award-winning Christmas parade floats, designed and built by employees and displayed outside the company’s office on the Interstate 70 Business Loop.

But even if it’s less obvious or well-known, the concrete and plastic manufacturer and distributor’s handiwork in western Colorado extends far beyond an annual appearance at holiday events. It’s featured in the largest public works initiative in Grand Junction’s history, in a project to prevent Mesa Mall and surrounding homes and businesses from flooding and in most golf courses on the Western Slope.

And after operating for more than 50 years under the supervision of one family, Grand Junction Pipe and Supply has changed ownership.

Owners Ron and Marie Tipping sold the company June 10 to Washington, D.C.-based Summit Materials, a transaction that includes all divisions of Grand Junction Pipe and Supply and the company’s two retail locations in Grand Junction and five retail locations across the Western Slope.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

In an interview Monday, Ron Tipping said a combination of age and the uncertainty of the economy convinced his wife and him that now was the time to act on something they’d contemplated for four or five years. Leaving an industry they’ve known most of their lives isn’t easy, though.

“When you’ve been doing something for 50 years and you walk away, it takes a little adjusting,” he said.

Tipping, 70, said while he and his wife will retire, the company will retain its name and its roughly 170 employees.

He said he expects Summit Materials to make some changes, although he doesn’t know what they will be. He anticipates that a current employee will run the business’ day-to-day operations.

The sale of Grand Junction Pipe and Supply marks the third time in a little more than two months that a local, longtime construction-related company has sold to an out-of-area firm.

The sales of Harbert Lumber to Denver-based ProBuild and Elam Construction to Summit Materials were announced in April.

Established in 2009, Summit Materials was formed to acquire and grow building materials companies, according to its website. It has purchased a number of firms across the nation in the last year and is financed by venture capital firms The Blackstone Group and Silverhawk Capital Partners.